No (or minimal) lane controls •
Connecticut Avenue in
Washington, D.C. •
Chain Bridge in Washington, D.C. A
barrier transfer machine is used to move the concrete barrier. •
Johnston Street,
Melbourne. Five lanes total, with the centre lane reversible. •
Queen's Road, Melbourne. Five lanes total, with the centre lane reversible. •
Tasman Bridge,
Hobart. Five lanes total, with center lane reversible. Morning peak, three west, two east. Other times, two west, three east.
Bermuda • East BroadWay between Front Street and Crow Lane, main routes in to
Hamilton (three lanes total, one reversible).
Brazil •
Radial Leste in
São Paulo has about ten lanes total (five in each direction) in most sections (but it varies slightly in others), and on weekdays it has one lane (sometimes two lanes, depending on traffic conditions) reversed during the rush hour (in the morning and in the evening) to reduce traffic congestion. In the morning, the eastbound lanes are reversed to the west (downtown), and in the evening, the westbound lanes are reversed to the east (suburb).
Canada British Columbia •
Lions' Gate Bridge in
Vancouver (3 lanes total, 1 reversible) •
George Massey Tunnel in
Delta and
Richmond, B.C. (4 lanes total, 2 reversible, with access controlled by gates) • During the
2010 Winter Olympics,
British Columbia Highway 99 was subject to lane control in three-lane sections of the highway, via signs on the side of the road that were changed manually. • Old
Pitt River Bridge in
Port Coquitlam and
Pitt Meadows, (4 lanes total with 2 reversible lanes accessed by gates.) •
Alex Fraser Bridge in
Greater Vancouver, (7 lanes total, 1 reversible with
movable barrier)
Nova Scotia •
Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, Chebucto Road and the Herring Cove Road in
Halifax (3 lanes total, 1 reversible)
Ontario •
Jarvis Street in downtown
Toronto (5 lanes total, centre lane reversed daily for AM/PM rush hours) •
Champlain Bridge in
Ottawa (3 lanes total; 1 reversible) • Sherman Access and Sherman Cut in
Hamilton, Ontario (2 lanes, both reversible)
Alberta • Connors Road in
Edmonton (3 lanes, 1 reversible) • McDougall Hill in Edmonton • 127th Street from 132 Avenue to
Yellowhead Trail • 97th Street from 118th Avenue to 127th Avenue in Edmonton (7 lanes total, 3 reversible) • Centre Street from 20th Avenue N to 6th Avenue S in
Calgary (4 lanes total, 2 reversible; standard configuration is 2 out, 2 in; morning rush is 1 out, 3 in; and evening rush is 3 out, 1 in) • 10th Street NW / 9th Street SW from 5th Avenue NW to 4th Avenue SW in Calgary (4 lanes total, 2 reversible; standard configuration is 2 out, 2 in; morning rush is 1 out, 3 in; and evening rush is 3 out, 1 in)
Quebec •
Park Avenue in
Montreal, five lanes total, centremost lane is reversible, sidemost lanes are reserved for
public transport during rush hour; morning rush is 2 in, one out (not including bus lanes), evening rush is reversed •
Quebec Bridge in Quebec City, three lanes total with the median lane reversed for traffic heading into the city in the morning and leaving the city in the afternoon •
Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal, five lanes total, two for both directions, one rush hour central reversible lane •
Victoria Bridge in
Montreal, two lane, one in each direction. Both lanes are inbound from 6am to 9am, and outbound from 3pm to 7.15pm.
Croatia •
State Route 102 near
Kraljevica leading southbound to the
Krk Bridge used to have a three-lane passing lane combination, blind curves, and a steep grade. It was later changed to a passing lane combination that makes the northbound traffic dominant. •
Motorway A6 used to have 2+1 setup at section between exit 6 Oštrovica and exit 7 Kikovica in period between its opening in 1972 and 2008, when it was upgraded to full
motorway standard. Road had two lanes in direction east, and one lane in direction west, but along almost whole route overtaking was allowed in direction west so middle lane was used by both directions.
Germany • Heerstraße,
Berlin, 5 lanes in total • Connection road between
Europa Park, Rust, and the
Autobahn A5, 3 lanes in total.
New Zealand •
Auckland Harbour Bridge (8 lanes total, 2 reversible, with a movable barrier) •
Panmure Bridge in
Auckland (3 lanes total) • Whangaparaoa Road; between Hibiscus Coast Highway and Red Beach Road in
Auckland (3 lanes total) • Redoubt Road; between
Auckland Southern Motorway off-ramp and Hollyford Drive in
Manukau (3 lanes total)
Turkey • Reversible lanes are frequently used in hilly sections of highways with heavy truck traffic. Most of them were built during the 1980s and 1990s.
United Kingdom •
A12/
A47 road in
Lowestoft on the approaches to the
Bascule Bridge. As 4 lanes merge into 3 on the approaches to the bridge for both sides, the middle lane is open northbound in the morning until 11:30AM and open southbound after 11:30AM. All lanes are closed temporarily when the bridge is raised by way of red X's and red flashing lights. •
A38 road across the
Tamar Bridge and through the
Saltash Tunnel in
Saltash. The middle lane is reversible, allowing for control of traffic flows in holiday periods and during rush hour. •
A470 North Road in
Cardiff, A section of around 1 mile long between the Maindy Road Junction and College Avenue where the road drops from a dual two-lane to a three-lane section. One lane is always dedicated to Northbound (out of town) traffic, and one lane to Southbound (city centre bound traffic) with the centre lane reversing depending on the time of day – i.e. in the morning 2 lanes into the city, 1 lane out, in the evening 2 lanes out of the city, 1 lane in. •
A1434 in Lincoln (Canwick Road) has a short three-lane section of tidal flow. •
A38(M) Aston Expressway in
Birmingham has 7 lanes, 3 of which are flexible according to rush hour traffic flow direction/time of day.
United States Alabama • In
Montgomery, Norman Bridge Road through the Garden District and Old Cloverdale has a center lane with reversible markings and traffic flow lights between Burton Avenue and Legrand Place.
Alaska • The
Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel between
Portage and
Whittier is a 13,300 feet (4,050 m) long, reversible single lane tunnel, shared between vehicular traffic and trains. The direction of traffic alternates every 15 minutes, with periods allowed for train traffic each day.
Arizona • In
Phoenix on 7th Avenue between McDowell Road and Northern Avenue, and 7th Street between McDowell Road and Cave Creek Road/Dunlap Avenue. On both roads, the lane configuration is 2 southbound and 3 northbound, with the center lane open for southbound traffic between 6-9am and open to northbound traffic between 4-6pm. Left turns are prohibited from the reversible lane at most arterial and collector street intersections during these hours but still allowed at driveways and non-signaled street intersections.
California • Lafayette Street in
Santa Clara – the center lane is used for northbound traffic on weekday mornings, southbound traffic for weekday afternoons, and as a center turning lane at other times. •
Golden Gate Bridge in
San Francisco and
Marin County – (6 lanes total, 2 reversible with moveable barriers) • 4th Street Bridge in
Los Angeles – the center lane is used for westbound traffic on weekday mornings, eastbound traffic for weekday afternoons, and as a center turning lane at other times. • The
San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge (a portion of
SR 75) – five lanes with movable center wall; is alternately configured as 3/2 or 2/3 dependent on time of day (westbound mornings, eastbound afternoons) •
Interstate 15 "Express Lanes" in San Diego County between SR 52 and SR 78 – four lanes with movable barrier; normally configured as 2/2 but can be shifted to 3/1 or 1/3 if needed
District of Columbia •
Rock Creek Parkway operates as a one-way road on weekday mornings and afternoons. •
Clara Barton Parkway operates as a one-way road between the MacArthur Boulevard Exit and Chain Bridge on weekday mornings and afternoons •
Independence Avenue has a reversible center lane on weekday mornings and afternoons between 3rd Street SW and 2nd Street SE.
Georgia • South Atlanta Street (
SR 9) in
Roswell: the center lane of three is reversed using overhead lane-use control signals between Marietta Highway (
SR 120) and the Chattahoochee River. • Vineville Avenue (
US 41/
SR 19) in
Macon: the center lane of three is reversed using overhead lane-use control signals. • (Formerly) Northside Drive (
US 41/
SR 3) in
Atlanta: Until 2009, the center lane of three between Arden Road NW and
Interstate 75 was reversed using overhead lane-use control signals. This reversible travel lane was removed in multiple phases between 2009 and 2014 and replaced with a two-way left turn lane. • (Formerly) Memorial Drive (
SR 154) in
Atlanta: Until 2019, between Pearl Street SE and Whiteford Avenue SE, the center lane of three was reversed using overhead lane-use control signals. This reversible travel lane was replaced with a two-way left turn lane. • (Formerly) Dekalb Avenue NE/Decatur Street NE in
Atlanta: Until 2023, alongside the blue and green
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority line, the center lane of three was reversed using overhead lane-use control signals according to rush hour traffic. This reversible travel lane was replaced with a two-way left turn lane.
Indiana • In
Indianapolis, Fall Creek Parkway North Drive between Central Avenue and Evanston Avenue has 5 lanes (7 in some sections) with 1 lane marked as reversible. Configuration is typically designed to allow for 3 in, 2 out during morning rush hours, and 2 in, 3 out during afternoon rush hours. Due to Fall Creek Parkway's proximity to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, lane configurations change periodically to facilitate traffic flow during events at the fairgrounds.
Kentucky •
Clay Wade Bailey Bridge in
Covington (3 lanes total, 1 reversible) • Nicholasville Road (
US 27) in
Lexington has reversible lanes (lane signals, no physical separation) starting at its intersection with Conn Terrace at the
University of Kentucky campus and ending at
New Circle Road, the city's inner beltway. During morning rush hour, as well as the hours before
UK football home games, southbound traffic (away from the UK campus and downtown) is restricted to one lane between campus and Southland Drive, and two lanes from Southland to New Circle. Northbound traffic faces the same restrictions in the evening rush hour and immediately after football games. During off-peak hours, an equal number of lanes are dedicated to traffic in each direction. One dedicated left-turn lane is always provided regardless of the current traffic configuration. • Baxter Avenue and Bardstown Road (
US 31E) in
Louisville have reversible lanes (lane signals without any physical separation) for miles through
The Highlands, starting at their intersection with Lexington Road in the north and ending at Douglass Boulevard in the south. This stretch of road has four lanes, but on-street parking frequently restricts traffic to one lane in each direction outside of rush hours. During rush hours, parking is prohibited north of Douglass Boulevard. Southbound traffic leaving
downtown Louisville is restricted to one lane during the morning rush hour, with northbound traffic having the same restriction during the evening rush hour. Also, the lane immediately to the left of rush-hour through traffic becomes a dedicated left-turn lane. Electronic signs over the roadway alert motorists to the traffic flow dedication of each lane. According to a 2017 traffic study, this is the only road in the United States that has
both lane lights and on-street parking. In 2018, a proposed called for ending this traffic arrangement.
Maryland •
Chesapeake Bay Bridge (a portion of
US 50) near
Annapolis (5 lanes total, all marked reversible, 1 usually reversed for normal peak traffic). However, due to its dual spans, when there are 2 eastbound lanes and 3 westbound the opposing sides are completely divided, this is the usual configuration. • Hanover Street Bridge in
Baltimore has 5 lanes total marked reversible, with 1 usually reversed for normal peak traffic). •
Georgia Avenue in
Silver Spring has 7 lanes. During most hours, the center lane is marked with a yellow lit
X as a left turn lane for both directions. During morning and evening rush hours, the lane is marked with a down facing green arrow – southbound in the morning, northbound in the evening – or a red
X – northbound in the morning, southbound in the evening – and left turns are prohibited. •
Colesville Road (US 29) in
Silver Spring has 6 lanes. During off-rush hours, three lanes go in each direction. During morning rush hours, four lanes (marked with green arrows) go southbound, while northbound (marked with Xs in those lanes) is relegated to two lanes. During afternoon rush, the process is reversed. •
Clara Barton Parkway operates as a one-way road between the MacArthur Boulevard Exit and Chain Bridge on weekday mornings and afternoons Over 100 bus carriers utilize the Exclusive Bus Lane.
New York • Upper level of the
Queensboro Bridge in
New York City has four lanes and can have all flowing inbound (AM peak), or two lanes each direction in normal configuration. •
Mid-Hudson Bridge in
Poughkeepsie, New York, has a reversible center lane used during rush hour.
North Carolina • (Formerly) East 7th Street in
Charlotte •
US 29 in
Charlotte • This road is the access road to
Charlotte Motor Speedway from the city, and links to
Interstate 485. It is used for any events at the speedway. • Edwards Mill Road in
Raleigh near
Lenovo Center.
Ohio • (Formerly) Butler Street in Sandusky, used to route traffic between
US 250 and Cleveland Road, featured a reversible center lane to facilitate influxes of traffic going to and from
Cedar Point.
Pennsylvania •
Liberty Bridge near the southern terminus of
I-579 in
Pittsburgh has 4 lanes, all of which are potentially reversible, and 2 of which are reversed based on rush-hour times. •
West End Bridge in Pittsburgh has 4 lanes, which are all potentially reversible. • West General Robinson Street near
Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh has 4 lanes, and 2 are reversible.
South Carolina • The Silas N. Pearman Bridge, demolished in 2005, originally contained a third reversible lane, leftmost when heading north on
US 17. This was converted to a fixed truck lane for southbound traffic shortly after its construction in the 1960s, as an inspection of its companion bridge, the John P. Grace Memorial Bridge, revealed it was no longer strong enough to carry truck traffic. Both bridges would eventually be rendered obsolete and replaced by the Ravenel Bridge.
Tennessee •
US 70 in
Nashville has three reversible lanes (lane signals, Traffic Lights, without any physical separation) from Korean Veterans Boulevard to just east of a railroad crossing, there is a break in the reversible lanes between Willow Street and Lindsley Avenue. • Victory Memorial Bridge in Nashville has 5 lanes, with only the center lane begin a reversible lanes (lane signals without any physical separation).
Texas • West Alabama Street and North Main Street in
Houston – both are three-lane streets, which operate in a 2 in, 1 out configuration during the morning rush, a 1 in, 2 out configuration during the evening rush, and a 1 each way + two-way left turn lane at other times. • North Collins Street from Cowboys Way to East Division Street, and East Division Street from North Collins Street to Six Flags Drive, just east of
SH 360 are reversible to give access to
Cowboys Stadium in
Arlington Utah • 5400 South (
SR-173) in Salt Lake County between 1900 West and
Bangerter Highway has seven lanes, three of which are reversible and include a center turning lane at all times.
Virginia • River Road in Newport News between 75th Street and Shipyard Drive. This is the truck route for
Newport News Shipbuilding.
Lane controls and physical separation • The
A38(M) motorway (also known as the Aston Expressway) in
Birmingham, England. The road connects the city centre with
Spaghetti Junction on the
M6. It is a 2-mile, 7-lane section of motorway with no central reservation, and a lower than usual speed limit of 50 mph. Constructed in 1971, it was the United Kingdom's first contraflow road. Overhead lane control signals allow for 4 lanes in and 2 out in the morning rush hour, reversed in the evening, and 3 lanes each way at all other times. One dividing lane is closed to traffic at all times, and motorcycles are permanently prohibited from using the central, red-surfaced lane (with a fixed sign) owing to its use as an off-camber drain. The lane control signals can be set to allow travel in either direction for any lane in exceptional circumstances, which has been used for single-lane, reduced-speed running in each direction (or 2+1 with no divider) during road work, allowing the expressway to remain largely open even during major repairs. However, the 7-lane section splits at both ends to fully divided sets of 4x2 lane slip roads, with the central red lane ending in a barrier, so full use of this flexibility is uncommon and occasional overnight closure is required. •
U.S. Route 78 in
Snellville, Georgia, United States, has 6 lanes in total. This occurs from the
limited access portion through
Stone Mountain Park to
Georgia State Route 124 (Scenic Highway) for several miles. The middle two lanes were reversible (usually occurring during rush hour) with a varying lane always reserved as a center turn lane; hence 3 lanes were used for one direction of travel and 2 for the other. However, due to rising traffic volumes during peak hours that made traffic flows equivalent, the reversible lane system was removed in 2009. • The
Caldecott Tunnel between
Oakland, California and
Contra Costa County, previously had three separate bores, with the middle bore switching direction twice daily for rush hour traffic. A fourth tunnel bore opened in November 2013 to westbound traffic. Two bores are now permanently used by westbound traffic, and the other two by eastbound traffic, with no reversible lanes. • The
Elbe Tunnel near
Hamburg, Germany, is part of the
Bundesautobahn A7 and has four separate bores, of which two can be switched to allow travel either in each direction or unidirectionally.
Lane controls and physical separation by movable barrier moveable barrier, installed January 2015 •
Benjamin Franklin Bridge,
Walt Whitman Bridge, and
Commodore Barry Bridge in
Philadelphia •
Tappan Zee Bridge (1955) in
New York •
Theodore Roosevelt Bridge in Washington, D.C. • The
Golden Gate Bridge (6 lanes total, 2 reversible), connecting
San Francisco with suburban
Marin County. Prior to 2015, opposing traffic lanes were separated only by
plastic pylons, which were moved several times daily by hand and provided minimal physical separation. Installation of a movable median barrier was completed on January 11, 2015. •
Alex Fraser Bridge in
Vancouver, British Columbia (7 lanes total, 1 reversible) •
Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge in
New York City (7 lanes total, 1 reversible)
Third (reversible) carriageways on freeways •
Bundesautobahn 7,
New Elbe Tunnel,
Hamburg, Germany (actually two reversible carriageways, plus two fixed) •
Warringah Expressway in
Sydney, Australia •
Interstate 5 in
Seattle, Washington •
Interstate 15 in northern
San Diego, California •
Interstate 17 in Arizona, between Black Canyon City and Sunset Point, north of Phoenix •
Interstate 25 and
US-36 in
Denver, Colorado •
Interstate 394 through
Minneapolis, Minnesota and its western suburbs •
Interstate 90/
Interstate 94 (segment of the
Kennedy Expressway) in
Chicago, Illinois •
Interstate 75 and
Interstate 575 north of
Atlanta, Georgia, and Interstate 75 south of Atlanta •
Interstate 279 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (center carriageway reserved for
HOV traffic during rush hour) •
Lee Roy Selmon Expressway from
Brandon to
Tampa, Florida •
Interstate 595 between
Interstate 75 and
Interstate 95, through the western suburbs of
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contains a fully reversible, variable-toll carriageway for express lanes. Travel direction is eastbound during morning rush hour and most of the rest of the day, and westbound during afternoon rush hour and most of the rest of the evening. •
Interstate 64 in
Norfolk, Virginia (24/7 High Occupancy Toll Lane system, free for HOV-2+ traffic with E-ZPass Flex) •
Interstate 395 and
Interstate 95 in the
Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. (24/7 High Occupancy Toll Lane system, free for HOV-3+ traffic with E-ZPass Flex) •
Lincoln Tunnel between
Weehawken, New Jersey and the
New York City borough of
Manhattan has three tubes with two lanes each. The center tube carries two lanes in peak direction weekdays (with a reserved inbound bus lane during the AM rush period) and a single lane each direction off-peak (nights, weekends, holidays). •
Multiple freeways in Houston have reversible center HOV lanes operated by
Houston METRO. •
A1 motorway between the interchanges of
A9 and
A6,
Amsterdam, Netherlands. A two lane carriage is opened in the peak direction during rush hours. •
A10 motorway,
Second Coen Tunnel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. One of the tubes is opened in the peak direction during rush hours.
Entire roadway routinely reversed • The
Anchieta/
Imigrantes highway system in
Brazil contains the world's longest fully reversible road (The Imigrantes variant at a length of 58.5 km). It comprises a total of ten lanes distributed over four separate roadways (3+3+2+2), each of which can be reversed. Traffic flow is unidirectional on up to three roadways at a time, in different combinations, depending on demand. Since this highway system is the only quick route from
São Paulo to the beach, the majority of the traffic on Fridays and Sundays are cars on weekend trips, creating highly asymmetrical demand. • In Washington, D.C., the
Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway between the
Lincoln Memorial and Calvert St. is converted from two lanes in each direction to one-way southbound in the morning and one-way northbound in the evening rush hour Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. The P Street exit, usually unavailable northbound, is an allowed left exit in the evening. South of Virginia Avenue, two lanes are closed during rush hours to facilitate the merge to or from Virginia Avenue. There are no overhead markings, but police barricades block wrong-way entrances to the roadway.
Entire roadway formerly reversed • The
Southern Expressway in
Adelaide,
South Australia, was the world's longest exclusively one-way reversible road. It opened in 1997 and eventually traversed though the city's southern suburbs, until its duplication to carry two-way traffic completed in 2014. It changed direction to carry peak hour traffic to the city centre in the morning and away from the city in the evening. On weekends, the directions were reversed.
One lane formerly reversed •
Motorway M7 in Hungary from 1972 until the completion of the second carriageway in 1975. The existing carriageway between
Törökbálint and
Zamárdi normally operated with one lane in each direction, but carried traffic towards
Budapest only on Sunday afternoons. •
Alfords Point Bridge in Australia from 1973 till bridge duplication in 2008. The center lane was reversible. After 2008, a 300-metre reversible center lane still remained on Alfords Point Road over
Henry Lawson Drive, approximately 500 meters north of this duplicated bridge. • Washington Boulevard (
SR 237) in Arlington County, Virginia, United States between 13th Street and Wilson Boulevard – this one-block section had only 3 lanes with the center lane reversible by overhead light up indicators. Since 2024, it has been widened to four lanes (two in each direction). == Escalators ==